This blog features my weekly column called "What's up in the sky". It is published every Saturday in the Ellensburg newspaper, Daily Record (http://www.kvnews.com/). While my postings will be most accurate for Central Washington, readers throughout the northern USA may find something of use.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

The Ellensburg WA sky for the week of 4/8/17

Saturday: Mercury
is a half a fist held upright and at arms length above the west-northwest
horizon at 8:30 tonight. Mars is a little bit higher, two fists above the west
horizon.

Sunday: You
probably didn’t know this but several British New Wave bands were really into
astronomy. Take the band “Dead or Alive” (please). The original lyrics to their
song “You Spin me Round (Like a Record) were actually: “ You spin me right
round, baby, right round, like the Whirlpool Galaxy, right round, round,
round.” (Well, that’s what I thought they were.) The Whirlpool Galaxy was the
first galaxy observed to have a spiral shape. Since then, astronomers have
discovered many galaxies, including our own Milky Way Galaxy, have a spiral
shape. Go to http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0506a/
for more information about the Whirlpool Galaxy. Go to your small telescope to
find the Whirlpool Galaxy in the night sky. It is in the constellation Canes
Venatici, the hunting dogs. At 10 p.m., find Alkaid, the end star of the Big
Dipper handle, six fists above the north-northeast horizon. The Whirlpool
Galaxy is two fingers to the upper right of Alkaid.

Monday: Poor
Jupiter. Objects from space just keep bombarding it. On March 17 last year, two
amateur astronomers, unbeknownst to each other, had their cameras aimed at
Jupiter when a brief flash of light appeared on the limb. This is the fifth
time such an impact has been observed in the past ten years. For more
information, go to http://goo.gl/6eV7ql.Tonight, nothing large is probably
hitting Jupiter
in the Solar System. But the Full Moon seems to come close to hitting Jupiter in
the night sky. At 9 p.m., Jupiter is a half a fist to the upper right of the
Moon.

Tuesday: The
Lyrid meteor shower peaks next week. But there will be increased meteor
activity for the next two weeks in the vicinity of the constellation Lyre. The
meteors appear to come from a point to the right of the bright bluish star Vega
in the constellation Lyra the lyre. This point is about three fists above the
east-northeast horizon at midnight and close to straight overhead near dawn.

Wednesday: It
you didn’t run the Yakima River Canyon Marathon nearly two weeks ago, satisfy
that marathon craving by attending a virtual Messier Marathon. Charles Messier
(pronounced messy a) was an 18th century French astronomer best known for his
catalog of 110 nebulae and star clusters. Amateur astronomers love to find as
many of these as they can in one night. During the online Messier Marathon,
you’ll see the images broadcast on the Internet. The fun starts this morning at
11:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (when astronomers on the nighttime side of
Earth point their telescopes towards interesting celestial objects). For more
information, go to https://goo.gl/FNm3NZ.

Thursday: Saturn is two fists above the south horizon at 6 a.m.

Friday: Antares
is one fist below the Moon tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky,
go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.